China calls out US human rights abuses: laptop searches, ‘Net porn

Upset over US condemnation of its human rights problems, China's report on US …

Upset over the US State Department's annual human rights report, China publishes a report of its own on various US ills. This year, it calls attention to America's border laptop searches, its attitude toward WikiLeaks, and the prevalence of online pornography.

In case the report's purpose wasn't clear, China Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said this weekend, "We advise the US side to reflect on its own human rights issue, stop acting as a preacher of human rights as well as interfering in other countries' internal affairs by various means including issuing human rights reports."

The report makes no real attempt to provide context to a huge selection of news articles about bad things happening in the US, piled up one against each other in almost random fashion. It reads like the product of an undergrad's caffeinated night of Googling (or Baidu-ing, as the case may be).

As the UK's Guardian paper noted, "While some of the data cited in the report is derived from official or authoritative sources, other sections are composed from a mishmash of online material. One figure on crime rates is attributed to '10 Facts About Crime in the United States that Will Blow Your Mind, Beforitsnews.com'." The opening emphasis on US crime is especially odd; crime rates in the US are the lowest they have been in decades; the drop-off has been so dramatic that books have been written in attempts to explain it.

But the report does provide an interesting perspective on the US, especially when it comes to technology, and it's not all off base. China points to US laptop border searches as a problem (and they are):

According to figures released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in September 2010, more than 6,600 travelers had been subject to electronic device searches between October 1, 2008 and June 2, 2010, nearly half of them American citizens. A report on The Wall Street Journal on September 7, 2010, said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was sued over its policies that allegedly authorize the search and seizure of laptops, cellphones and other electronic devices without a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. The policies were claimed to leave no limit on how long the DHS can keep a traveler's devices or on the scope of private information that can be searched, copied, or detained. There is no provision for judicial approval or supervision. When Colombian journalist Hollman Morris sought a US student visa so he could take a fellowship for journalists at Harvard University, his application was denied on July 17, 2010, as he was ineligible under the "terrorist activities" section of the USA Patriot Act. An Arab American named Yasir Afifi, living in California, found the FBI attached an electronic GPS tracking device near the right rear wheel of his car.

China also sees hypocrisy in American discussions of Internet freedom. China comes in regularly for criticism over its "Great Firewall," but it suggests that the US government also restricts the Internet.

While advocating Internet freedom, the US in fact imposes fairly strict restriction on cyberspace. On June 24, 2010, the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, which will give the federal government "absolute power" to shut down the Internet under a declared national emergency. Handing government the power to control the Internet will only be the first step towards a greatly restricted Internet system, whereby individual IDs and government permission would be required to operate a website. The United States applies double standards on Internet freedom by requesting unrestricted "Internet freedom" in other countries, which becomes an important diplomatic tool for the United States to impose pressure and seek hegemony, and imposing strict restriction within its territory. An article on BBC on February 16, 2011 noted the US government wants to boost Internet freedom to give voices to citizens living in societies regarded as "closed" and questions those governments' control over information flow, although within its borders the US government tries to create a legal frame to fight the challenge posed by WikiLeaks. The US government might be sensitive to the impact of the free flow of electronic information on its territory for which it advocates, but it wants to practice diplomacy by other means, including the Internet, particularly the social networks.

(The cyberspace bill never became law, and a revised version is still pending in Congress.)

Finally, there's pornography, which China bans.

Pornographic content is rampant on the Internet and severely harms American children. Statistics show that seven in 10 children have accidentally accessed pornography on the Internet and one in three has done so intentionally. And the average age of exposure is 11 years old - some start at eight years old (The Washington Times, June 16, 2010). According to a survey commissioned by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, 20 percent of American teens have sent or posted nude or seminude pictures or videos of themselves. (www.co.jefferson.co.us, March 23, 2010). At least 500 profit-oriented nude chat websites were set up by teens in the United States, involving tens of thousands of pornographic pictures.

I'm more than willing to admit that the US has major problems of its own, but isn't China guilty of the same thing by criticizing us when they have their own problems as well? It's just human nature I suppose...

While it is indeed laughable and hypocritcal for China to condemn other nations with regards to human rights, I also find it a bit cringeworthy that the US Government produces this annual report. Maybe it should be produced by a country that has no blood on its hands. Not sure if such a place exists mind you...

Well, as I recall, Americans are pretty upset over a lot of this as well. And yet, only the pornography seems to get attention from our lawmakers, who seem otherwise fine with irradiating us, searching our laptops, demanding our papers, seizing domain names, and thugging for copyright lawyers.

I don't need a Chinese report to tell me that shit in this country is upside down and backwards.

While it is indeed laughable and hypocritcal for China to condemn other nations with regards to human rights, I also find it a bit cringeworthy that the US Government produces this annual report. Maybe it should be produced by a country that has no blood on its hands. Not sure if such a place exists mind you...

a) I don't know that any such country exists.b) why should a lack of perfection stop us from publishing such a report? If you think such a report is worth publishing, you can't decide that because we aren't perfect, we shouldn't create one. There are certainly reasons why it may not be a good idea for us to publish the report, but our own history seems a poor one.

You're right, China. Those facts about crime in the US did, in fact, blow my mind.

Whats crazy about the US crime statistics is that it is actually lower than Finland, Denmark, New Zealand and the UK. Whats even crazier is how low the crime rate is in the middle east and the old soviet block.

You're right, China. Those facts about crime in the US did, in fact, blow my mind.

Whats crazy about the US crime statistics is that it is actually lower than Finland, Denmark, New Zealand and the UK. Whats even crazier is how low the crime rate is in the middle east and the old soviet block.

I tend to think the difference is in how (and if) crimes are reported in the US.

While it is indeed laughable and hypocritcal for China to condemn other nations with regards to human rights, I also find it a bit cringeworthy that the US Government produces this annual report. Maybe it should be produced by a country that has no blood on its hands. Not sure if such a place exists mind you...

Those reports are highly informative, trustworthy and useful for those of us trying to help refugees gain asylum status in the U.S. and other countries. They actually take the time and manpower to do investigations in the country, rather than this pathetic mish-mash of googling displayed by the Chinese. Of course, there are other resources out there, such as the UN, HRW and Amnesty International. But clearly you must not do any substantive human rights work if you advocate getting rid of such a useful source of information.

This is more than the pot calling the kettle black. This is more like the pot calling the off-white casserole black.

The laptop border searches has led to me setting up a number of companies with laptops that contain no information and they work entirely out of "the cloud". It isn't that these companies have information the government would care about, it is just that there is no control over who has access to the data the government downloads.

As for the rest, yes the US government is a hypocrite about online freedom, but China shouldn't be talking about that at all. As far as crime goes, you trace that all back to abortion and birth control. Children who are not born to parents who don't want them, can't afford them or will abandon them are far less likely to become criminals. I say this as a long time Republican (admittedly one at odds with his current party) and someone who abhors late term abortions. That said, that said the statistical correlations don't lie, unlike politicians.

I wonder why the Chinese even do this? Is it playing to internal audiences, or diaspora, or their allies? The UN? No Western countries are likely to take it seriously.

My guess? To show that they can. They seem to be becoming more bold, which can only be a good thing, imo - about time the US was involved in another Cold War!

But seriously. It's a good thing. As long as there remains an international pissing contest between China and the US, the rest of us benefit from a) the entertainment like this, and b) increased competition for technological development and scientific research in both countries

while i agree with most of you that this is kind of half assed, silly, hypocritical and pointless....Its kind of humorous to see someone else pump a quick report on someones fallacies that have nothing to do with themselves or their country. As I was reading it, I took subtle sarcasm from it.

Communist drivel. You have a lower right to privacy when you cross international borders. Searches and seizures are considered more reasonable at border checkpoints even under the US Constitution. Some of the computer seizures sound outlandish but some are legit. China is mentioning this because China has a HUGE spy ring going on in the US to steal technology. People spying for China have been caught at the border. PEOPLE dont understand how many communist sympathizers there are in the US.

The claim to human rights violations for adult Pornography is ridiculous. They didn't mention child porn which is obviously harmful to kids. The US bans underage porn anyway.

Internet freedom in the US is more free than anywhere else. The EU has a boatload of constraints and China doesn't allow Chinese people to read about Tiananmen Square massacre. China's claim is pretty lame too. The US is definitely headed toward a bad direction with domain seizures, but at least they have Due Process.

The porn thing is funny but they have a point about the search and seizure stuff. The irony of guys coming to Canada wearing America: Sweet Freedom shirts is a bit much when they are visiting a place where you can't wire tap a citizen without a warrant or take his shit away at the border cuz he's brown

I wonder why the Chinese even do this? Is it playing to internal audiences, or diaspora, or their allies? The UN? No Western countries are likely to take it seriously.

They're not worried about Western nations taking it seriously. They want Chinese citizens to take it seriously. "Sure, we've got some issues, but look how bad the US is, too! And they issued their report first, so they're the aggressors! Aren't you proud to live in a nation that protects you from pornography, doesn't search you at the borders (not spoken: because we won't let you cross the borders), only restricts the Internet in appropriate ways, and doesn't issue human rights reports pre-emptively?"

That's the real damage of "The Patriot Act" and all this fake "War on Terror" to mask what is little more than outright robbery and class warfare by the rich elite. They've got America to say to every dictator, bandit, terrorist, monarch past present and future; "You were right. Our ideals are lies, there to prop us up in good times but thin as paper that gets blown by the wind." The works of the Revolutionary Founding Fathers has been reduced to "Rich elites cheating their king of his taxes" with the rest being padding to get the "Foolish peasants to commit treason against their king, so we could tax their LIQUOR!!!"

And, IMO, it hurt the whole world, even places like China.

America used to be the "Torch of Liberty" the "Great Arsenal of Democracy". Even places that didn't like us or had different views listened to us and feared us if they didn't admire us, for what ideals we represented as much as what we could do.

But now we are just the dying but still dangerous "American Empire" consigned to the cr-p heap of history with the British Empire. Even China now is on par or better with America, it'll crush you mercilessly if you go against it or commit a crime, but otherwise doesn't give a sh-t, just lets you bitterly struggle alone to survive and maybe have some fun before you die. It crushes protest but only 'cause it's not as good at IGNORING it. Some might rave "Well, GO there." and frankly thanks in no small part to Dubya (though every prez since Nixon save Carter is to blame) their economy could out-strap ours pretty soon. Might be prudent to marry a Chinese person so if the USA goes down the toilet you can go there, but if say by some miracle we can purge these parasites (the rich elite running this sick puppet show of media and politics) she can move here.

Ultimately, America might well pass on because people will be so disgusted with it they'll stop believing in it. Then when the next round of "Bills come due" states that either think they are entitled to more than they can get or aren't obliged to pay what they owe will break off, and cities will break off those states.

China needs to put more effort into producing such reports, ideally with a marketing manager hired from US (RIAA./MPAA service experience should be mandatory). After they hire the right person US will feel humbled.

I wonder why the Chinese even do this? Is it playing to internal audiences, or diaspora, or their allies? The UN? No Western countries are likely to take it seriously.

They're not worried about Western nations taking it seriously. They want Chinese citizens to take it seriously. "Sure, we've got some issues, but look how bad the US is, too! And they issued their report first, so they're the aggressors! Aren't you proud to live in a nation that protects you from pornography, doesn't search you at the borders (not spoken: because we won't let you cross the borders), only restricts the Internet in appropriate ways, and doesn't issue human rights reports pre-emptively?"

I know they're not worried about Western nations taking it seriously -- that was the point I was making: who is the audience (since it ain't us)? If it's internal, is that an issue of them knowing that the human rights report will get through to native Chinese, despite the filtering, so they are inoculating their populace? Is it for the party members?

Err... I'll take porn over population over growth and enslavement.Tho don't worry folks in 30 or 60 years the US will ban porn and any federally unapproved comments/sites/information after all we must be protected for ourselves.....

Yeah, OK China... because tracking somebody with GPS and watching porn ranks right up there with silencing dissidents by making them "disappear," never to be heard from again. Completely the same thing.

My guess? To show that they can. They seem to be becoming more bold, which can only be a good thing, imo - about time the US was involved in another Cold War!

But seriously. It's a good thing. As long as there remains an international pissing contest between China and the US, the rest of us benefit from a) the entertainment like this, and b) increased competition for technological development and scientific research in both countries

Upset over US condemnation of its human rights problems, China's report on US human rights abuses this year takes on tech. China is concerned, for instance, that the FBI slapped a GPS tracking device on a suspect's car.

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The childishness of China's actions deserves a response appropriate to a child: Two wrongs don't make a right. If China wants to be taken seriously, they should grow-up. Not equating civil liberties abuses with human rights atrocities would be a good start. Also, they need to get over the porn thing.